Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.68.46
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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ananta
—
O unlimited one
Ananta — without limit. Balarāma's other principal name. He is the unlimited one who, in cosmic form, carries the earth on a single one of His infinite heads.
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sahasra - mūrdhan
—
O thousand-headed one
The form of Śeṣa-nāga. Balarāma is being addressed in His viśva-rūpa aspect — and the Kurus do this voluntarily, where Arjuna at Kurukṣetra needed Kṛṣṇa to grant divine eyes (Gītā 11).
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advitīyaḥ pariśiṣyamāṇaḥ
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remaining without a second
Pari-śiṣyamāṇa = 'leftover, remainder.' Śeṣa is the 'remainder' after dissolution. Even the name Balarāma carries (Śeṣa) is being unpacked here.
You sleep on Sesa, without a second (advitiyah), since there is no one else existing at that time except you in the three worlds.
Protection is your main business because you hold up the earth by your great mercy in your specialized expansion. O unlimited one! Therefore you can have a thousand heads. Therefore with even one of your heads you can support the whole world. Even during destruction you do not deviate from maintaining everything. During the daily destruction after Brahmā’s day the universe remains protected within your form as Garbhodakaśāyī. You lie down with no one else except you (advitīyaḥ) in the three worlds at this time.
Protection is your main business because you hold up the earth by your great mercy in your specialized expansion. O unlimited one! Therefore you can have a thousand heads. Therefore with even one of your heads you can support the whole world. “Holding up the earth as Śeṣa I am different from the supreme lord. Why do you praise me as being identical?” At the end you alone remain. Or even during destruction you do not deviate from maintaining everything. At that time, you protect (niruddha) the universe within your form (ātmani). You are without a second. You alone remain and are thus called Śeṣa. Or unlimited one (Ananta)! O Lord with unlimited heads! This form is revealed in the puruṣa-sukta. Therefore you maintain this universe by your unlimited form, as a pastime.
- What 'too-heavy' problem could I entrust to the One who carries the earth?
- How does scale change my relationship to my burdens?
On a single one of His thousand heads He carries this earth as a child might balance a ball on a fingertip; at the close of all things He withdraws every world into Himself and sleeps alone. Balarāma's identity as Ananta-Śeṣa stands revealed.
Gauḍīya theology identifies Balarāma with Saṅkarṣaṇa and with Ananta-Śeṣa — the thousand-headed cosmic serpent on whose hood the earth rests, on whose coils Viṣṇu reclines in the milk-ocean.
The Kurus, in the panic of their surrender, name this very identity in verse 46. They speak more theology in this single ślok than they have spoken in years of court life. Necessity is sometimes a better tutor than tradition.
My note
Source: vedabase.io